This invention relates to a shuttleless loom with unidirectional weft thread carriers.
In my application Ser. No. 660,748 (now U.S. Pat. No. 4,015,642) there is disclosed a shuttleless loom of the type having unidirectional weft thread carriers, comprising a throwing and recovering device for at least one of said carriers, wherein the device includes a guide for causing the carriers to move along a closed path one portion of which passes through the shed, the guide including a linear throw portion and a linear return portion and two arcuate portions connecting said linear portions at opposite sides of the loom. The device further comprises at at least one of said arcuate portions a circular guide portion substantially tangent to the linear return portion and to the linear throw portion, a flywheel rotatably arranged within the circular guide portion and defining the inner wall thereof, the flywheel being provided with entraining means for the carriers. The device further comprises means for causing the carriers to make at least one complete revolution within the circular guide portion and to be thrown out of the circular guide portion into the throw portion after at least one complete revolution within the circular guide portion.
In a loom having a throwing and recovering device so constructed, the carrier returns to the throwing area with almost all of its throwing energy, only a modest part of this energy being lost through friction and resistances, contrary to what occurs in prior art shuttleless looms, where the carrier, or carriers, is slowed down and stopped at the shed termination and once again thrown from a standstill. The retention of most of the throwing energy affords a lower energy consumption for each fresh throw as well as a higher carrier velocity, which additionally makes available a longer time lapse for reciprocating the sley, which is thus allowed to reciprocate at a lower rate to generate less vibration.
It has now be found that the results obtainable with the device mentioned above may be further improved, particularly concerning the losses through friction and resistances by the carrier in its movement.